Michael Scudamore - obituary

Michael Scudamore was a jockey, trainer and veteran of 16 consecutive Grand
Nationals who stormed his way to victory in 1959 and founded a notable
racing dynasty

On their way to victory: Scudamore and Oxo clear the last fence in the 1959 Grand NationalPhoto: HULTON/GETTY

5:19PM BST 08 Jul 2014

Michael Scudamore, the patriarch of the racing dynasty who has died aged 81, notched up a record 16 consecutive rides in the Grand National, famously riding Oxo to victory for trainer Willie Stephenson in 1959.

Scudamore also won the 1957 Gold Cup on Linwell, and was one of the privileged few jockeys to have ridden a winner over jumps for the Queen Mother.

After hanging up his saddle in 1966 he watched as his son Peter Scudamore and grandsons, jockey Tom and trainer Michael, maintained family National Hunt tradition. But even though Peter Scudamore, an eight-time champion rider, managed to take home nearly every other piece of precious metal available to a top jump jockey, and though there has seldom been a National without a Scudamore involved in some capacity or other, Michael Scudamore was the only member of the family to land the top prize.

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Scudamore’s Aintree quest began somewhat unpropitiously in 1951 on a horse called Easter A Calling. “They went too fast to the first, over-jumped and piled into each other,” he recalled in an interview with The Guardian. “Twelve of us fell or were brought down and all I remember is bouncing along among a lot of hooves.”

But he refused to give up and in 1959 his mount, farmer Johnny Bigg’s eight-year old bay gelding Oxo, put in a near-perfect ride, while Scudamore’s main rivals saw their chances scuppered by the handicapper or by sheer bad luck.

The previous year’s winner, Mr What, weighed down with 11st 9lb, flagged badly with two fences to go, leaving Oxo and Wyndburgh, ridden by Tim Brookshaw, to contest the finishing line without him.

The two jockeys had been side-by-side throughout the race but, as Scudamore recalled, “When we jumped Becher’s for the second time, Tim shouted across to me that he’d broken his stirrup leather. I didn’t answer him back, I just thought, 'That’s a good thing, it’ll help me a bit’.”

But it was not that simple, for Brookshaw’s misfortune resulted in one of the most amazing pieces of riding in the history of the National. Instead of pulling up, the jockey freed his other foot and rode the rest of the race without stirrups. Although Oxo had a big advantage clearing the last fence, his lead by the lollipop winning post had been whittled down to just one-and-a-half lengths. “I could hear Tim and Wyndburgh behind me all the time,” Scudamore recalled. “It seemed a long time from the final fence to the finish.”

Out of a field of 34 there were only four finishers and the Pathé newsreel of the event hailed Oxo as “the horse who put beef into his backers”. But if Scudamore had expected to be congratulated by the trainer for his skill in avoiding the mishaps which had claimed other riders, he was disappointed. Stephenson ticked him off for letting the horse hit the front too early.

Michael Scudamore was born on July 17 1932 into a Herefordshire farming family. His father was a point-to-point trainer and amateur jockey and Michael made his debut on the racecourse in the late 1940s when his father called him from the stands to take a spare ride in a hunter chase at Hereford.

During a career as a National Hunt jockey, which ended in 1966 with a bad fall at Wolverhampton which left him with a permanently damaged left eye, Scudamore captured all the top jumps prizes bar the Champion Hurdle. He rode his first winner at Chepstow in 1949 and, as well as the National and the 1957 Cheltenham Gold Cup, he took the 1956 King George VI Chase on Rose Park and the 1957 Welsh Grand National on Creeola II. He was also successful in the Queen Mother’s colours on Gay Record at Wye in 1966. From 1950 to 1966 he rode 496 winners, finishing runner-up in the 1956-57 season.

Until he was forced to give up Scudamore largely avoided injury. His grandson Tom has recalled that he was in more danger off than on the course: “One of the worst injuries he received was on a shopping trip when he fell through a hole in the floor and dislocated his shoulder. Once, on a night out, he mistook the lamp on the table for a vinegar bottle, took out the wick and poured paraffin all over his chips. Luckily, he only had a couple before he realised something was not right.”

Following his retirement from racing, Scudamore took out a trainer’s licence in Herefordshire, where he trained several winners including Bruslee, the winner of the Mackeson Gold Cup at Cheltenham in 1974, Fortina’s Palace, winner of the 1970 Grand Annual and Charles Dickens, who came third to Red Rum in the 1974 Grand National. He later handed over the yard to his grandson Michael, who recently trained a Welsh National winner in Monbeg Dude.

In 1957 Michael Scudamore married Mary Duffield, who died three days before her husband. Their son Peter survives him.